Author: Stephen Hill

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Sherlock Series Three Disappoints

After a two-year hiatus, Sherlock returned to television at the beginning of this year to the jubilant delight of thousands of fans around the world.  For those unaware, Sherlock is a retelling of the classic stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a contemporary setting. It provided the stage on which Benedict Cumberbatch, playing the titular character, burst into international acclaim, and it has not done poorly for the reputation of Martin Freeman in the role of deuteragonist John Watson, either. Written by Stephen Moffat (of Doctor Who) and Mark Gatiss, the show has thus far displayed a great ability to adapt Doyle’s original stories to a modern setting.

Courtesy of hollywoodreporter.com
Courtesy of hollywoodreporter.com

The third season had a tall order to meet. The dazzling success of the first two ended in the heights of mystery, as fans everywhere were left wondering how Sherlock had survived his apparent death while deceiving even Watson.  We all loved that ending, and looked forward to learning the explanation, as well as witnessing Sherlock’s return to his beloved London.

Any writers would have been challenged to deliver on fans’ expectations, and unfortunately, Moffat and Gatiss didn’t quite manage it. Compared to the prior two seasons, the third one has thus far been a relatively unremarkable example of television. Catering to the curiosity of the fans, Gatiss spent the majority of the first episode, The Empty Hearse,  focusing on Watson’s reaction to Sherlock’s return. As one of those curious fans, I was absolutely delighted by the emotion and concurrent humour involved with said reaction, but given the brevity of the episode, it was surely a mismanagement of time. It would have been business-as-usual in a show which featured seasons of normal length, but Sherlock only has three episodes per season, and I felt as though this writing decision cost them. Because the episode focused so much on Sherlock’s return, the drama of the actual case—in which Sherlock is to prevent a terrorist bombing of parliament à la Guy Fawkes—is hurried and unfinished. We never learned enough about the antagonist to actual fear that he might succeed, and by the end of the episode he still felt like an empty threat. Consequently, the resolution rang hollow as well.

The second episode,The Sign of Three, was slightly reminiscent of The Reichenbach Fall (the 2nd series finale) in its coverage of multiple cases which Sherlock hadn’t been able to solve. While it only seemed right that the writers should deliver handsomely on the wedding of John Watson, this episode again felt unfulfilling. The majority of it was retrospective, delivered in the form of history’s most awkward wedding speech, and it felt quite taxing by the time Sherlock wound to a close. Despite the fact that they tied all of the cases together at the ending and Sherlock was able to prevent a death during the reception itself, the entire episode still seemed as though Moffat and Gatiss had drawn inspiration from Michael Scott of The Office. While entertaining, it seemed out of place in Sherlock. Overall, the second episode was very disappointing. Most of the episode meandered without a clear antagonist to anchor it, and when he did show up it was without much hubbub or recognition. He was less engaging than a monster from Scooby-Doo, and the episode suffered for it. In most shows, I would call this a “filler” episode, making it a real shame that they wasted both the Wedding of John Watson and Sherlock’s first Best-Man speech on it.

Between the meandering and unfocused script of the second episode, and a first episode which, with its spectacled man and ominous music at the end, might well have been written to fulfill a checklist of “How to Introduce a Scary Villain,” the season has been much less enjoyable than the preceding two, and has felt much less engaging. That is not to say that it is a selection of terrible episodes, because it really still is far superior to most other contemporary television shows. Rather, in the third season, Gatiss and Moffat failed to meet the high bar which they themselves raised impossibly high in their first two seasons.  They put in a very good effort, though, and so I recommend that everyone who has not yet seen the season put the popcorn on and watch it ASAP—so long as you don’t hold it to the same standards as you might the first two seasons.

 

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Pope to Continue Efforts to Reform LCWR

Pope Francis I declared on Monday, the 15th of April, his solidarity with the controversial report by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) which was released last year, and his desire to advance Pope Benedict XVI’s goal of restructuring the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the USA. This is his most controversial action since he entered office last month, as it has been widely misunderstood.

Courtesy of LCWR.org
Courtesy of LCWR.org

Benedict’s crackdown on the progressive nuns of the LCWR roused a significant amount of public ire last year, and Francis’ support of the reform comes as no surprise. While he is intent on building popular opinion of the Catholic Church, he is also conservative. Thus, although many had hoped that Francis would break with tradition on this issue as he has with many others in his short time in the Papal office, it was in full accordance with expectations that Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller informed the LCWR of the pope’s decision on Monday.

In the US media, the conflict between the Vatican and the LCWR has been portrayed as one of “Pope versus Progressive Nuns” and as yet another instance of archaic Catholic dogma oppressing human progress. The matter is more complicated than that, however; although the nuns of the LCWR have indeed been reprimanded for spending “too much time” on social justice issues, and for deviating from traditional Catholic doctrine regarding contraceptives and homosexuality, the Vatican objection arises from the group’s divergence from traditional Catholic teachings regarding some key elements of Catholic doctrine.

The role of the CDF is to ensure that no heretical doctrines are taught by Catholic clergy—they were formerly known as the Office of the Holy Inquisition. Consequently, great weight has been lent to their assessment that LCWR has strayed far from Catholic doctrine. The nuns of the order have allegedly expressed the sentiment of “moving beyond Jesus,” as well as blatantly calling into question his divinity under the guise of progressive feminism. The CDF determined that they were espousing “significant doctrinal or moral content which often contradict or ignore magisterial teaching.” The members of the LCWR have contested the allegations by saying that they never officially supported such views, but the CDF, and now two Popes, have determined that their defense was inadequate to avoid hierarchical reform.

The LCWR is a religious order and therefore distinct from the regular clergy: its nuns do not fall under the jurisdiction of parish priests, bishops, or anyone besides their own intra-order superiors and the Pope. The Pope himself is the sole connecting point between the hierarchies of religious orders and regular clergy. That is why first Benedict and now Francis have had to intervene to correct the alleged doctrinal deviances of the wayward sisters.

There is room to question the fairness of the Papal action on this matter, however. Francis has been accused of repressing movements for social justice during the Argentine “Dirty War.” Also, by reforming the LCWR and bringing it back in line with Catholic doctrine, the Pope stands to gain favor with more conservative Catholics who have been offended by his recent deviations from tradition.

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Iran and Pakistan Inaugurate Natural Gas Line

On the 11th of March, Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan inaugurated the construction of a pipeline to take natural gas from Iran to Pakistan. The move, which is part of an effort to alleviate the power shortages in Pakistan, has drawn sharp criticism from the United States due to the Iranian involvement.

Courtesy of stateofpakistan.org
Courtesy of stateofpakistan.org

The pipeline has been under construction for some time already. Iran has reported that it has finished construction on its side of the border—some 1,150 kilometers of pipeline which run from the gas fields of southern Iran. Pakistan will complete the project by laying the remaining 750 kilometers in its own territory.

Highest among most concerns regarding the project is the possibility that Pakistan will be unable to afford the pipeline. Its main funding comes from two separate $500 million loans from the governments of Iran and China. The remaining cost will ostensibly be met by user fees.
Another concern is security. The pipeline will cut through the Balochistan region of Pakistan, which has been a hotbed of terrorist attacks in recent years, and attacks have shown a tendency to favor pipelines.

The pipeline risks incurring international sanctions due to the Iranian involvement in the project. The Pakistani government has insisted that their need for power outweighs their fear of international repercussions, as there are places within Pakistan which go for multiple hours without power every day, and the problem has been getting worse over time. The United States has suggested several other strategies to the Pakistani government in the past few years. The most prominent of these has been a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan. However, the Pakistani government has insisted that production on such a pipeline would take too long, considering the extreme nature of their present power shortages.

Iran is beset by numerous international sanctions as a consequence of its pursuit of nuclear technology. Many governments have expressed concern that Iran is developing nuclear bombs. Ahmadinejad insists that the pipeline at least should not incur the sanctions, as it is not possible to build a nuclear bomb out of a gas pipeline.

The pipeline is a popular move in Pakistan as it provides an expedient solution to their incessant power shortages, and because it is in direct defiance of the United States to find an alternative. Although the United States provides millions of dollars of aid to Pakistan, its drone strikes and other efforts against al-Qaida and the Taliban in the region have left it highly unpopular among the Pakistani people.

Planning on the project started back in 1994, but it has faced numerous delays. The Pakistani and Iranian governments hope to have the pipeline complete by 2014, but as it has faced numerous setbacks in the past nine years and skepticism is high.

Although the pipeline itself has been planned for a long time, the timing of Monday’s ceremony was highly political. Pakistan’s elections will be held next month, and so the ceremony was likely motivated by a desire to kindle support by the currently-dominant Pakistani People’s Party (PPP). Its main rival is the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), which has ties to the strongly anti-Iranian government of Saudi Arabia. Because of the pipeline’s popularity, the PML-N will be put in the tight spot of appeasing its allies in Saudi Arabia or continuing the project and keeping its people happy.

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Pakistan Faces Internal Strife

Courtesy of nation.com
Courtesy of nation.com

A sit-in protest in Quetta, Pakistan ended on Tuesday when the government allegedly met all of the protesters’ demands. The protest was held as a response to the Saturday bombing of a market district, with the protestors rallying around the families of those who were killed in the bomb blast.
The families refused to bury their dead until the government promised to take action to prevent future bombings.

Quetta is the largest city in the Pakistani district of Balochistan, and has a high population of Hazara, who primarily practice Shia Islam. The Hazara are a distinct ethnic group within northern Pakistan and Afghanistan who trace their ancestry back to the Mongols. Their distinct appearance makes them easy targets for Sunni extremists.

Related protests were held throughout Pakistan, with the largest being in Karachi and Lahore, but also in other cities with sizeable populations of Hazara.

On Tuesday, the Pakistani government arrested one hundred and seventy people in relation to the bombing. Among those taken into custody was a former provincial minister, one of the masterminds of the recent bombings. According to the Pakistani information minister, Qamar Zaman Kaira, the arrests are expected to make a significant difference for regional security.

Four suspects were also killed during Tuesday’s operation. They were allegedly responsible for the past murders of high-ranking police officers and a Shia judge.

Saturday’s blast, which killed eighty-nine individuals, was only the latest in a string of bombings which has left more than two hundred and thirty Pakistani Shi’ite Muslims dead since January 10, when the bombing of a billiards hall in Quetta killed ninety-two people. Since then there have been multiple smaller bombings around Pakistan, including the bombings of a Shia mosque and a police checkpoint at the beginning of February.  A Sunni Muslim extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), has claimed responsibility for the bombing campaign.

LeJ was formed sometime in 1995/1996 as a violent offshoot of a comparatively peaceful religious-political organization known as “Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.” LeJ’s stated goals are to forge Pakistan into a Deobandi Sunni state. They are a takfiri group, which means that they consider all of those who hold different religious beliefs to be infidels. LeJ has been responsible for several previous bombings of Shi’ites in Pakistan, as well as being suspected in a 1998 massacre of Hazara in Afghanistan. Besides bombing Shi’ite Muslims, LeJ has demonstrated a proclivity for bombing Barelvi and Ahmadi Muslims; while the latter two are Sunni sects, they do not share common goals with the Deobandi sect of Sunni Islam.

Pakistan is predominantly Sunni, but has seen a significant rise in sectarian violence in recent years. There have been killings between componential sects of Sunni Islam in addition to the far more common violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims. The first two months of this year have already seen almost two hundred and fifty Pakistani Shia killed by their countrymen. 2012, on record as the deadliest year for Pakistani Shi’ites, saw the deaths of four hundred.
For Pakistani nationals, interracial and intra-religious conflict continues to pose as significant a threat as the more publicized geopolitical conflict which plays out in their country.

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Houghton Students Attend Calvin Conference

Fifteen Houghton students and two professors attended the eighth-annual Faith and International Development Conference at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, last weekend.
The conference, subtitled “From Here to Shalom: Participating in God’s Plan for Universal Flourishing,” was intended to inform students of current development issues around the world, and to supply them with new perspectives on how to address them. For conference attendees it was also an opportunity to interact with potential employers.

Courtesy of Derek Schwabe
Courtesy of Derek Schwabe

“It was a great chance to network with NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), some that I would possibly like to work with in the future,” said Moeun Sun, sophomore.
Approximately three hundred and thirty students from thirty colleges and universities attended the conference. It was organized by Calvin students with the assistance of their International Development Studies faculty, and featured representatives from twenty-five different NGOs. It lasted four days, during which attendees were able to enjoy the full extent of Calvin’s snow-covered campus and ventured into Grand Rapids.

The conference was constructed around a number of general plenaries for all to attend, which were interspersed with smaller sessions, in which representatives of various NGOs gave presentations on the nature and goals of their organizations. These presentations ranged the full spectrum of developmental issues, including peacemaking, healthcare, advocacy, and the environment.

Sun said, “I was pleasantly surprised at how many different kinds of FBOs (Faith-Based Organizations) were represented there.” The individual NGOs held smaller sessions to discuss general ideas or issues and the means by which the NGO seeks to address them.

Senior Andrea Pacheco said, “As someone who has attended the conference for two years now, I found it to be very instrumental in learning about the field of international development, and what it involves.” “This year there were key speakers, such as Steve Radelet, that I think added much more academic and professional credibility to the conference,” Pacheco continued, pointing out that many of the NGOs present have high-minded goals while not necessarily having the necessary expertise.

The conference was not simply a collaboration of NGOs from different fields, but also from multiple denominations. Among the speakers and leaders were Mennonite, Reformed, and Episcopalian Christians. Readers who know Church history might appreciate the ecumenical development exemplified at the conference.

While the conference was overall a success, the information which was presented tended to be fairly basic. There is an inherent difficulty in organizing such a conference, as the attendees all come from different backgrounds. While some might find the information to be basic, it might be entirely novel to others, who are more recent to the topic. This diversity shows up even among the Houghton students who went.

Freshman Matthew Munkittrick said, “I went because I am studying International Development and wanted to get to know a bit more about what I am going to be studying.”

Additionally, the speakers generally focused on their own experiences and contextual situations. Pacheco says, “I’d like to see some more presentations on concrete, current research of the field.” The attendance of Dr. Radelet was a step in that direction, but the vast majority of the speakers were still anecdotal.

Despite the criticisms some of the Houghton students had, they all enjoyed the conference, and everyone got more from it than they had anticipated. In the words of Munkittrick, “Overall, it was definitely worth the twelve-hour bus ride!”